Susceptibility to Acaricides of Adult Ornithodoros Tholozani (Ixodoidea: Argasidae) in Relation to the Slow-Death Syndrome

Potential risk of pathogen transmission by acaricide-poisoned ticks

“…Values of T LD 50 differed up to 2-fold between young and old ticks of a given species (po0:001). This was also demonstrated for many other tick species (Darrow and Whetstone, 1972;Rupesˇet al, 1972;Heller-Haupt and Varma, 1982;Uspensky, 1982Uspensky, , 1995Mount, 1984). At least for some pathogens transmitted by ticks there are data on decreases of prevalence in tick populations and/ or intensity of tick infection with increasing tick age (Martin et al, 1964;Dalgliesh and Stewart, 1979;Walker and Fletcher, 1985;Piesman et al, 1987;Mishayeva et al, 1990).…”

“…In each test involving tick feeding, 10-12 ticks were fed on laboratory animals: nymphal ticks on guinea pigs and female ticks on rabbits (together with an equal number of males). The other details of tick maintenance and feeding have been described in detail in our previous publications (Uspensky, 1974(Uspensky, , 1982Uspensky et al, 1975Uspensky et al, , 1977Ioffe-Uspensky et al, 1997).…”

“…This finding was later supported by tests with other species. The phenomenon was called 'slow-death syndrome' (Uspensky, 1982). Taking this finding into account, we observed treated ticks every day during the first seven days post-treatment and then every second day till the day when no further increase of tick mortality was registered.…”

The repellency and toxicity effects of essential oils from the Libyan plants Salvadora persica and Rosmarinus officinalis against nymphs of Ixodes ricinus

“…This compound has also been extracted from Laurus novocanariensis essential oil and demonstrated to have potent acaricidal activity against Psoroptes cuniculi mites with 100% mortality (Macchioni et al 2006). Additionally, acaricide doses close to the LC 50 with lower dose 0.5 µl/cm 2 , it could induce rather delayed toxification and survival of toxemic ticks for several days (syndrome of a slow death according to Uspenskiy (Uspenskiy 1982).…”